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Variations in Written English:
Characterizing the Rhetorical Language Choices in the Brown Corpus of Texts
Author: Jeff Collins
Degree: Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003
Jeff Collins's dissertation,
"Variations in Written English: Characterizing the
Rhetorical Language Choices in the Brown Corpus of
Texts," explored an aspect of rhetorical invention
by analyzing the micro-rhetorical decisions of
authors in two 500-text corpora of professional
writing samples (randomly compiled to reflect variation
across 15 genres of written English). Using
statistical analyses, the study demonstrated
that the authors of the corpora texts met their
rhetorical challenges, in part, by altering their usage
of a set of linguistic phenomena described by a new
theory of micro-rhetorical priming (Kaufer, Butler, Ishizaki,
Collins, In Press). Based upon a qualitative discourse
analysis, five language dimensions are presented to
describe the ways the authors met the writing challenges
across the various genres. The statistical evidence, both
exploratory and confirmatory, suggests that writers of the
corpora texts controlled for variation along these five
language dimensions in effecting their textual designs.
The implications are that these five dimensions may mark
fundamental rhetorical "cut points" in written English,
functioning as a hidden meso-layer linking micro decisions
of rhetoric and broader rhetorical plans.
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